KEYS TO ASCENSION

Rick Wakeman. He's in Yes, he's out of Yes, he's back in, then he's out again. Here he's beck in, and we should be thankful for that. This is the first of two sets of albums, each containg live tracks from a concert in 1996, and some new studio recordings.

On this album, the live tracks are great. And the band is in amazing form, playing some songs that don't seem to have been played that often by Yes. There's Siberian Khatru and a complete version of The Revealing Science Of God, sounding much better than the original on "Tales From Topographic Oceans". And a fine version of America.

The only flaw in the live tracks is Roundabout, where it seems like Chris Squire is trying to hard to push the beat, and keeps getting ahead of the drums.

The two studio tracks are good, the better of them being That, That Is, a twenty minute epic. Both of them sound more like the songs on ABWH than any full Yes albums, but they beat any of the Yes-West tracks.